Monday, September 03, 2012

Blogger STOLE this post

My apologies to regular and casual readers of this site.

I usually begin the week with a wise and/or witty quotation. I often spend hours scouring the Net - or my private library - for suitable candidates. At the start of each month, I usually try to come up with such a 'bon mot' myself.

Because these posts, though usually very short, are amongst the most labour-intensive things I produce for my blogs, I like to try to prepare batches of them for some weeks or months in advance. A few months back, I spent the best part of a day compiling ALL of these 'bon mot' posts on both of my blogs for the rest of the year.

Then, last week, Blogger gremlins deleted ALL of my 'scheduled' posts. (Well, at least here on Froogville. If they'd destroyed all of my pre-baked goodies over on Barstool Blues as well, I would be even more distraught.)

So, no 'Bon mot for the week' today, I'm afraid.

I am still in mourning for my murdered babies.

And until I see some sort of acknowledgement that Blogger has become aware of the problem and taken steps to fix it, I don't feel much inclined to post any more at all - and certainly not to pre-schedule anything.

The Very Best of Froogville

Pick of the Month: a random recommendation from the archive

The Barstool

Yang Rui must GO!

A leading presenter on China Central Television's English-language channel has revealed himself to be a xenophobic hate-monger. WHY does he still have a job? Lobby for his dismissal - by any and all means.

Days Ai Weiwei was detained

80

With ironic, sinister symmetry, the celebrity artist/activist was incarcerated on the same day that my friend Wu Yuren was finally released from 10 months' detention.

Now, like Wu, he's been released on extremely restrictive 'bail' terms - but could face re-arrest at any moment. He was detained incommunicado from April 3rd to June 22nd 2011.

Days Wu Yuren was in prison

307

"Released on parole" after 10 months; "parole" lifted another year later. The original charges against him were apparently dropped without his trial ever being formally concluded.

How you might have helped Wu Yuren (and the many others like him in China)

Remembering the Tiananmen protests of 1989

About Me

Froog is an escaped lawyer - but there is no need for alarm; he is only a danger to himself, not to the general public. An eternal wanderer, he now lives in an exotic city somewhere in the 'Third World' *, where he is held prisoner by an unfinished novel (or, more precisely, an unstarted novel). He spends a lot of time running, writing, taking photographs, and falling in love with women who fail to appreciate him. He also spends a lot of time in bars.
[* OK, I'll come clean: I've been living in Beijing since summer '02.]